Trying to do everything you possibly can to aid your kidneys to get healthier, but thinking about what you will eat on a healthy kidney diet – and what you might need to give up?
Maybe you will be surprised, and relieved, to find out you don’t have to give up eating all your favourite foods on a kidney healthy diet, though you may need to reduce some, for example the amount of steak, salty snacks, soda and coffee you are allowed on a kidney diet.
Here are the troublesome foods your kidneys are having difficulty breaking down and you must now avoid, if you have kidney stones or any other signs of early kidney disease:
- Anything with added sodium, or table salt. You may be able to have very restricted amounts of pure sea salt (available at nutrition stores) which, unlike standard table salt, is not processed
- MSG, a food preservative, often found in convenience foods, packaged foods and Chinese food
- Protein. On the kidney diet, you’re restricted to one small serving around 5 to 7 ounces of a protein, for example eggs or red meat.
- Deli style meats – they’re packed with sodium, as are salty snacks
- Fluids – most people with kidney disease don’t get enough fluids, particularly water. Yet drinking too much also puts too much of a burden on the kidneys. The daily limit is 48 ounces, and this includes soup, gelatin desserts such as Jello, and fruits or vegetables that are mostly liquid for example grapes, lettuce, tomatoes and oranges.
- Anything containing phosphorus, found in dairy products such as milk and yogurt and also nuts and peanut butter.
- No beer, cola drinks, cocoa, chocolate and you will have to limit coffee and other foods or drinks with caffeine, for example energy drinks.
- If you have calcium oxalate kidney stones, you need to limit spinach, rhubarb, Swiss chard, beets, wheat germ and peanuts.
Here are the ‘good’ foods you’ll be able to eat and enjoy. Fortunately, it’s a generous list – and also this isn’t all of the ‘healthies’ you can have on healthy kidney diet:
- Almost any herbs (to provide flavour, instead of salt) and also pepper.
- Rice and pasta
- Unsalted versions of snacks such as popcorn and pretzels
- Seafood including shrimp, imitation crab (Pollock) and many types of fish
- Chicken and turkey
- Most fruits and veggies, including juice
- Non-dairy creamer, rice and corn cereals, lemon-lime drinks including pop (soda), root beer, iced tea, lemonade
Adopting a healthy kidney diet and healthy kidney lifestyle can not only slow or even halt the illness, it may help your kidneys to partially recover.
That means that you might be able to stop your kidneys becoming weaker.
Even in a later stage of the disease it’s not too late to make this choice, begin to feel much better, possibly avoid dialysis and get your life back.
It’s a mistake doctors say they see frequently – that individuals with kidney disease feel hopeless to try and do something to manage their condition and feel healthier.